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Original poster

Sale falling through

28 replies

ScissorBow · 30/09/2017 21:11

May I ask those who've been unfortunate enough to have a sale fall through how long there was between accepting an offer and the sale falling through please?

OP posts:
SquareSquares · 30/09/2017 21:18

Ours was quite a few years ago now but I think 5/6 weeks. We were about to exchange and our buyer pulled out

Bicyclethief · 30/09/2017 21:22

Us too, bout exchange and they pulled outAngry

BarchesterFlowers · 30/09/2017 21:27

We are about to pull out of a purchase following survey, our offer was accepted five weeks ago and we have spent £2k on fees!

orangeowls · 30/09/2017 21:28

My buyer pulled out 11 weeks in, just before exchange

ellesbellesxxx · 30/09/2017 21:30

A week! The vendor got made redundant week after we had Offer accepted. Had sent off cheques to solicitors but luckily they hadn't been cashed. Ironically they were going to buy a place in the road we live in! We love our home so it all worked out:)

PerfectlyPooPoo · 30/09/2017 22:02

Barchester what was in the survey that's made you have to pull out?

Original poster
ScissorBow · 30/09/2017 22:24

OK so anywhere between 1 and 3 months. And may I ask for main reasons for pulling out of sales if known please?

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orangeowls · 30/09/2017 22:43

Our buyer pulled out because last minute they asked us to reduce the price by 10% or they wouldn’t exchange contracts and we refused. They had had to offer a lot more than they wanted to because they were bidding against three other people (house sold in a week.) I think they thought they could get us to that point and then demand the amount off so they were back to their original offer and we wouldn’t want the trouble of putting house back on the market. They were wrong - and also total dicks!

BarchesterFlowers · 30/09/2017 22:44

Identified £20k of work that needs doing that wasn’t apparent without a full survey. Roof not structurally sound, everything from timbers in roof to purlins not supported to slates being on last legs, no felting and daylight being seen from all over the inside. Complicated roof shape, didn’t notice anything amiss when we viewed.

Seller thinks it is fine and our surveyor is wrong. We are paying a renovated house price not a doer upper price and I am not prepared to proceed - was prepared to foot half of the cost but have told our solicitor to down tools and I am viewing two houses on Monday.

Unrealistic seller. The EPC is two years old. Suggests he has been at it for a while.

JanuarySkies · 01/10/2017 00:11

Ours fell through on the day of exchange which was about 13 weeks after accepting the offer

SquareSquares · 01/10/2017 01:33

Buyer was being gifted money for the house by a relative. Relative decided they were no longer going to gift the money. Some crap story given as to why but we weren't entirely convinced

Boredboredboredboredbored · 01/10/2017 10:58

4.5 months of being dicked around then they pulled out Angry luckily I sold again within 48 hours and completed last Friday, took 3 months from 2nd offer. Crap crap system that ruined most of the year so far!

butterfly56 · 01/10/2017 15:05

A few years ago I was strung along by a 'cash buyer' for 5months and eventually I told her she couldn't have the house and sold it again within a week after putting the price up!

Finola1step · 01/10/2017 15:17

Had two purchases fall apart when buying 5 years ago. First house the vendors pulled out after 3 months because they couldn't secure a mortgage on new property. Luckily we hadn't paid for a survey but it was an extra 3 months in rental that we could have done without.

Second house we pulled out. Our surveyor found significant issues with a recently built extension. Like £25k worth of issues. We offered to go half way by dropping the sale price by £12.5k. Sellers refused and their estate agents tried to bully us to exchange within 48 hours. We pulled out. 6 months later the sold for £10k less than we offered.

IndianaMoleWoman · 01/10/2017 16:29

After a fortnight, when she realised that the leasehold on the house was due to rise by £30 per annum every ten years. I was glad she pulled out so early, actually - if her finances were so tight that she couldn't afford an extra £2.50 a month in a decade's time, she obviously couldn't afford our house - or possibly any house!

Original poster
ScissorBow · 06/10/2017 19:36

Sorry to hear so many have had bad experiences. It seems to be a mixture of buyers and sellers being unrealistic.

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BarchesterFlowers · 06/10/2017 20:01

It is rubbish scissor, there is such a shortage of houses where we need to be that the house we are looking at tomorrow has gone up in price by £15k today, lots of interest I guess!

Original poster
ScissorBow · 06/10/2017 20:37

Yes it's possible to be screwed over 2 ways. Mortgage rates going up and prices Sad

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FTimeBuyer · 07/10/2017 05:13

We pulled out of a sale as a buyer after a survey and valuation. Valuation was massively below our offer and the seller's expectations (about 20% below what they had it on the market for, can't remember how it compared to our offer) and they weren't willing to budge enough to make a mortgage affordable at our end. However, the survey also highlighted some big issues (think possible asbestos and undocumented alterations to a supporting wall) that the seller could give us little comfort on, which was also a massive red flag. I think it was something like a month to six weeks between our offer and the sale being called off.

BarchesterFlowers · 07/10/2017 16:07

Well, we offered the (new raised) asking price this morning but as another open afternoon has been booked for next weekend our offer has not been accepted - honestly, the world is going mad.

Hopefully once interest rates start to increase, even a little bit, some sort of balance will be restored.

In the meantime, we will carry on looking.

Herefornow1 · 07/10/2017 21:47

Seems we've been quite unlucky recently.
First offer accepted (after it went to best & final) and seller pulled out 4,5 months later. She couldn't find anything to buy for the money she had to spend. Was a fixer upper in a very good area.
Second offer also accepted after best & final. Immaculate property & could easily have been our forever home. Five months down the line they've still not found their ideal rural home and so we will have to walk away as we are renting & desperate to get in to our own home.
Its been a disheartening process.
Put in an offer today at asking price and requested they take the property off the market - we have proof of deposit and mortgage and no property to sell - and vendor said viewing scheduled for today would go ahead. I'm not holding my breath on this one either.

BarchesterFlowers · 08/10/2017 07:55

Sounds awful here. Where are you buying (roughly). Definitely a case of demand exceeding supply where we are.

I phoned an agent about a house that appeared on Friday ‘sold’. She told me that they have got a waiting list of cash buyers where we want to be. So frustrating! Why put it on right move anyway then?

Yorkshire rural market town.

Original poster
ScissorBow · 08/10/2017 23:21

Good luck Barchester

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BarchesterFlowers · 09/10/2017 07:29

Thanks Scissor. If they decide not to accept our offer we might just wait until the spring.

I can’t decide if the market will be starting to self correct here then or not. Demand is apparently huge (but there was a house that was on the market in this particular road that didn’t sell last summer).

Herefornow1 · 09/10/2017 08:59

We're in West Midlands, barchester.